Method and apparatus for a cross-connect system with automatic facility information transference to a remote location

ABSTRACT

Automatic facility information transfer to remote locations in cross-connect systems is accomplished by providing limited telephone services to wired premises not having permanent telephone service by enabling 911 calls, calls requesting permanent service, operator-assisted telephone company credit card calls, and calls to repair/maintenance centers from personnel in the field. In response to off-hook conditions at prospective subscriber premises or service personnel handsets connected to cable pairs in the field, limited telephone services are provided by a matrix system. Cable pair designations and the dialed telephone number are ascertained to respectively access a database and look-up table to retrieve facility information and protocol information for subsequent transmission of the calling line telephone number and facility information to a paging system. The paging system transmits the information to the telephone company business office, emergency center, or repair/maintenance service center being dialed. Telephone company credit card calls are transferred to an operator for conventional processing. In parallel with the paging transmission, calls progress through the network with the calling line telephone number inserted into the call for display at the calling destination. A representative at the calling destination verifies calling line telephone numbers received from the paging system and displayed at a paging device against calling line telephone numbers received from the telephone network and displayed at a workstation. An alternative embodiment utilizes four wire modems to retrieve facility information from an administrative workstation for storage in the matrix system and transfer to the calling destination.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No.08/591,817, entitled “Method and Apparatus for a Cross-Connect Systemwith Automatic Facility Information Transference to a Remote Location”,filed Jan. 25, 1996, now U.S. Pat. No. 5,812,934, which is acontinuation-in-part of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 08/408,831,filed Mar. 20, 1995 and entitled “Cross-Connect Method and Apparatus”,now U.S. Pat. No. 6,031,349, which is a continuation-in-part of U.S.patent application Ser. No. 08/111,770, filed Aug. 25, 1993 and entitled“Cross-Connect System”, now U.S. Pat. No. 5,456,608. The entiredisclosures in these patent applications are incorporated herein by thisreference.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Technical Field

The present invention relates generally to automatically controlledmatrix switching and manipulation in telephone systems or the like and,more particularly, to automatic transfer of facility informationassociated with a caller's premises from the matrix system to a remotelocation requiring such information.

2. Discussion of Prior Art

In response to a request received at a prior art telephone companybusiness office from a prospective subscriber for full and permanenttelephone service, information relating to the prospective subscriber isconventionally obtained orally by a service representative. Since theprospective subscriber does not know specific facility information (i.e.facility assignment numbers for facilities serving the prospectivesubscriber's premises), the service representative must send an order,prepared from the request for permanent service, to other locations toobtain the required facility information in order to establish permanentservice. The prior art overcame the need for obtaining facilityinformation from other locations by leaving the cable pair, centraloffice and line terminating card, and telephone number connected to adisconnected line of a previous subscriber, so that a new subscriber canretain the same known facility information from the previous subscriber.The association between a calling line and facility information isdetermined via automatic number identification (ANI) whereby the callingline telephone number (i.e., in this case the telephone number of theprevious subscriber) is automatically inserted into the dial pulsestream of a call during routing of the call over telephone lines.

In order to automate servicing requests for telephone service, ourcopending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 08/408,831 and U.S. Pat, No.5,456,608 disclose a cross-connect matrix and a method and apparatus forremotely placing jumper pins within the matrix to establishcross-connections between cable pairs and central office telephone linesin order to provide temporary and permanent telephone service toprospective subscribers. Also disclosed is a “soft dial tone” featurewhereby a prospective subscriber at a premises lacking full telephoneservice but connected to a cross-connect matrix (e.g., from installationfor a previous subscriber occupant of the premises) is provided withlimited telephone service sufficient only to place telephone calls to anemergency center (i.e., 911 emergency center), the telephone companybusiness office to request permanent telephone service, or otherlocations designated by the telephone company. Specifically, a soft orlimited access dial tone line is connected to the matrix instead of tothe telephone switching mainframe in order for the matrix system toselectively establish the proper connection and provide such limitedservice. However, neither of the aforementioned disclosures provide away to automatically associate and verify the exact address, locationand facility information of a prospective subscriber.

Further, the prior art determination of the association between facilityinformation and the calling line telephone number has severaldisadvantages. The determination is ineffective if the previoussubscriber transfers his/her telephone number to a new location.Further, there is no way to automatically associate and verify the exactaddress location and facility information of a prospective subscriber.Moreover, the service representative is required to verify the facilityinformation by means of time consuming research of facilities andthereafter arrange for technicians from a central office to associatethe calling line telephone number with the facility used to make therequest for permanent service, thereby increasing time, labor and costof the process.

OBJECTS AND SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide amethod and apparatus for automatically transmitting the address,facility information and other related data required to establish fulland permanent service, directly and automatically, to the servicerepresentative at a telephone company business office.

It is another object of the present invention to verify an associationbetween facilities at a prospective subscriber's premises and asubscriber calling line by automatically transmitting facilityinformation, during a call requesting service, to a servicerepresentative at a telephone company business office to permit displayof information related to the subscriber's calling line at the time thecall is answered.

Yet another object of the present invention is to automatically transmitaddress, facility information and other relevant data to a telephonecompany business office, emergency center, or repair/maintenance servicecenter to permit a plurality of service representatives to selectivelyreceive data applicable to the call being answered.

Still another object of the present invention is to verify address andfacility information by collecting, formatting and transmitting suchinformation, along with the calling line telephone number, via awireless telephone or paging network to an appropriate telephone companybusiness office, emergency center, or repair/maintenance service centerlocation for comparison with a calling line telephone number receivedfrom conventional telephone switching equipment.

A further object of the present invention is to provide a method andapparatus for identifying a specific soft dial tone line carrying eithera prospective subscriber's call to a telephone company business officeor an emergency center, or a service personnel member's call to arepair/maintenance service center.

Yet another object of the present invention is to provide a method andapparatus for processing telephone company credit card calls frompremises not yet having telephone services enabled.

According to the present invention, automatic transfer of facilityinformation to a remote location is accomplished by a matrix system at aremote site establishing a connection to provide limited telephoneservice (i.e., “soft dial tone”) to a prospective subscriber or aservice personnel member located in the field and connected via ahandset to a cable pair whose facility information is unavailable. Thematrix system also identifies the matrix x-y coordinates (i.e., the rowand column within the matrix for establishing the connection areidentified in substantially the same manner as described in thecopending Ser. No. 08/408,831 application) associated with a connection,to a limited service cable pair, established to provide the limitedtelephone service to the prospective subscriber or service personnelmember. The identified x-y coordinates correspond to a designation ofthe particular cable pair used for the connection. The identified cablepair designation can be used as a key to-access calling facilityinformation such as the address, distribution cable pair, binding postnumber, cross-connection information, address of cross-connection box,feeder cable pair number, and previous subscriber telephone number,stored in a database local to the matrix system. The previous subscribertelephone number is not actually needed since the matrix system of thepresent invention utilizes a soft dial tone line and has an establishedtelephone number for the soft dial tone line used for the connection.The matrix system monitors the prospective subscriber's or servicepersonnel member's telephone activity, and when the prospectivesubscriber, after going off-hook and receiving “soft” dial tone, desiresto make a telephone company credit card call by dialing zero, the matrixsystem transfers the prospective subscriber's call to an operator inorder for further processing. In response to detecting dialing of atelephone number of the telephone business office, emergency center orrepair/maintenance service center, the matrix system retrieves, from alocal look-up table, routing and protocol information of a paging systemlocal to the telephone company business office, emergency center orrepair/maintenance service center being called. The matrix systemsubsequently goes off-hook via a modem to access the paging system andtransfer the calling line telephone number and retrieved facilityinformation to the paging system in order for the information to be sentto the telephone company business office, emergency center, orrepair/maintenance service center. In parallel with the abovetransmission of information, the dialed call is routed throughconventional telephone lines with the calling line telephone numberinserted into the dial pulse stream of the call by telephone switchingequipment via automatic number identification (ANI). In response to thecall being answered at a telephone company business office, emergencycenter or repair/maintenance service center, the inserted calling linetelephone number is displayed at a workstation screen while the facilityinformation and calling line telephone number received from the pagingsystem is displayed at a pager display. In order to verify the facilityinformation, the calling line telephone numbers received via theaforementioned wireless transmission pager and conventional telephoneline paths are compared. A match between the calling line telephonenumbers indicates correct facility information for the call. Theverified facility information may be orally communicated to the servicepersonnel member in the field via the soft dial tone call. In addition,the matrix system may send test stimuli to the cable pair utilized bythe handset to ensure proper operation of the cable pair.

Alternatively, four-wire modems may be utilized for the transmission ofprospective subscriber facility information from an administrationcenter to a matrix system at a remote location. The administrationcenter typically includes a workstation having facility information forcable pairs and polls the matrix system to service any requests forfacility information. In response to a prospective subscriber or servicepersonnel member lifting a receiver or handset off-hook, the matrixsystem establishes a connection to provide limited telephone service viaa data-over- voice (DOV) modem in order to enable the prospectivesubscriber to place a call to the business office or emergency center,while the service personnel member can place a call to therepair/maintenance service center. The matrix system further identifiesthe x-y coordinates (i.e., the row and column within the matrix forestablishing the connection is identified in substantially the samemanner as described in copending Ser. No. 08/408,831 application) withinthe matrix system of the connection for the call of the prospectivesubscriber or service personnel member, thereby identifying a particulardesignation for the cable pair used in the connection in the mannerdescribed above. The matrix system subsequently responds to the pollfrom the administration center by requesting facility information forthe identified cable pair designation. The administration centerretrieves the facility information based upon the identified cable pairdesignation, and downloads the facility information to the matrix systemvia four-wire modems. In response to the call being answered at thetelephone company business office, emergency center orrepair/maintenance service center, the facility information and voicesignals of the prospective subscriber or service personnel member arerespectively transmitted over the same telephone line to the screen andtelephone handset of a service representative workstation via DOV modemsfrom the matrix system. The service representative at therepair/maintenance service center orally communicates the facilityinformation to the service personnel member in the field via the softdial tone call. Further, the matrix system may send test stimuli to thecable pair utilized by the handset to ensure proper operation of thecable pair. Moreover, subsequent to orally ascertaining customer credit,work location, contact names, and other information from the prospectivesubscriber, the service representative at the business office calls theadministration center to download the facility and newly retrievedinformation and request permanent service.

The above and still further objects, features and advantages of thepresent invention will become apparent upon consideration of thefollowing detailed description of a specific embodiment thereof,particularly when taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawingswherein like reference numerals in the various figures are utilized todesignate like components.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a functional block diagram of a system for processing a callfrom a dwelling unit to an emergency center with the calling linetelephone number and facility information being automaticallytransferred and displayed at the emergency center according to thepresent invention.

FIG. 2 is a functional block diagram of a system for processing a callfrom a dwelling unit to a telephone company business office with thecalling line telephone number and facility information beingautomatically transferred and displayed at the telephone companybusiness office according to the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a functional block diagram of a system for processing a callfrom a dwelling unit to an operator in order to make a credit card callaccording to the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a functional block diagram of a system for processing a callfrom a handset, connected to a cable pair in the field whose facilityinformation is unavailable, to a repair/maintenance service center withthe calling line telephone number and facility information beingautomatically transferred and displayed at the repair/maintenanceservice center according to the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a functional block diagram of a system utilizing four wire anddata-over-voice modems to transfer facility information to a telephonecompany business office, emergency center, or repair/maintenance servicecenter according to the present invention.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

FIGS. 1-3 illustrate a system for routing a call from a non-enabledtelephone line (i.e., full telephone service not enabled) at aprospective subscriber's premises to either an emergency center (e.g.,911 emergency center), a telephone company business office forrequesting permanent service, or an operator to place a call by creditcard. Specifically, the system includes a plurality of dwelling units orbusinesses 1 (only one of which is shown in the drawings), a telephonecompany switching office 20, a paging center 21, an emergency center 10,an administration center 22, and a telephone company business office 23.The system illustrated in FIG. 4 is substantially similar to the systemof FIGS. 1-3 except that a call from a service personnel member, via ahandset 53 connected to a cable pair 51 in the field whose facilityinformation is unavailable, is routed to a repair/maintenance servicecenter 50.

Dwelling units or businesses 1 are typically connected to switchingoffice 20 via non-enabled telephone lines 19 (i.e., lines that are notyet connected for full telephone service) while cable pair 51 isdirectly connected. Switching office 20 typically includes a matrixsystem 2 having look-up tables 34 and database 35, as well as modems 24,25 which communicate with paging center 21 and administration center 22,respectively. Matrix system 2 is substantially similar to, offers softdial tone service in substantially the same manner as, and may belocated at various sites external of switching office 20 in a similarfashion as, the matrix system disclosed in copending U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 08/408,831 and U.S. Pat. No. 5,456,608. Switchingoffice 20 further includes conventional telephone switching equipment 7for routing calls to proper destinations while inserting the callingline telephone number, via automatic number identification (ANI), withinthe dial pulse stream of the call. Paging center 21 typically includespaging terminal 26 for receipt of data to be transmitted by transmitter5. Emergency center 10 is typically a conventional emergency center forreceipt of 911 calls and includes a workstation 11 and a correspondingpager display device 6 for use by an operator. Telephone companybusiness office 23 is a typical business office for receiving requestsfrom prospective subscribers desiring establishment of permanenttelephone service at their premises and includes workstation 16 andcorresponding pager display device 15 for use by a servicerepresentative. Repair/maintenance service center 50 is a common servicecenter for distributing facility information and handling servicerequests from customers and service personnel in the field. The servicecenter includes a workstation 55 and corresponding pager display 57 foruse by a service representative. Administration center 22 overseesoperation of matrix system 2 and telephone company business office 23through communication with matrix system 2 and workstation 16 oftelephone company business office 23 via modem 27 and switchingequipment 7 respectively. Administration center 22 includes workstation18 for controlling matrix system 2 to establish permanent telephoneservice as described in copending U.S. patent application Ser. No.08/408,831. Administration center 22 and switching office 20 may alsoinclude respective pager display devices 12, 13 to monitor operations ofthe system. Further, emergency center 10, telephone company businessoffice 23, and repair/maintenance service center 50 typically include aplurality- of workstations and corresponding pager display devices toaccommodate several respective operators and/or service representatives.

FIG. 1 illustrates operation of the system to process a call from anon-working telephone line of a dwelling unit or business 1 to anemergency center 10. Initially, a prospective subscriber occupiespremises for which telephone facility and address information exists andcorresponds to a previous subscriber, but full telephone service is nolonger enabled. A database 35 residing in matrix system 2 storesfacility information from telephone company service orders utilizingcable pair designations as a key or facility identifier. Specifically,assume that the prospective subscriber at dwelling 1 desires to place acall to emergency center 10 and goes off-hook. In response to detectingthe off-hook condition on telephone cable pair 19 for dwelling 1 (i.e.,at the prospective subscriber premises), matrix system 2 provides a dialtone by establishing a connection to one of the soft dial tone linesconnected to matrix system 2 as previously described in copending U.S.patent application Ser. No. 08/408,831. Matrix system 2 identifies thex-y coordinates (i.e. the row and column within the matrix forestablishing the connection to the soft dial tone line are identified insubstantially the same manner as described in the Ser. No. 08/408,831application) within the matrix of the connection establishing the softdial tone service in order to associate the coordinates with aparticular designation of the cable pair used for the connection. Theassociated cable pair designation is used to retrieve facilityinformation pertaining to the facilities at the prospective subscriber'spremises from matrix system database 35 in order to store theinformation in a holding register (not shown). The facility informationretrieved typically includes the address, distribution cable pair,binding post number, cross-connection information, address ofcross-connection box, feeder cable pair number, and previous subscribertelephone (although no longer needed since the matrix system utilizes asoft dial tone line and knows the telephone number of the soft dial toneline used for the connection).

During facility information retrieval described above, matrix system 2monitors a call placed by the prospective subscriber in order toascertain the first digit of the telephone number being dialed. Inresponse to an initial digit of nine being dialed, matrix system 2 isaware the call is being placed to emergency center 10 (i.e., 911 isbeing dialed) and immediately accesses look-up tables 34 local to matrixsystem 2 to retrieve routing and protocol information for a wireless oralphanumeric paging center 21 serving the area of emergency center 10.The routing and protocol information retrieved from look-up tables 34are converted to the proper dialing protocol to route a call from modem24 residing in matrix system 2 over a conventional telephone line 4 topaging terminal 26 at paging center 21. Modem 24 typically formats theretrieved protocols for the calling soft dial tone line telephone number(i.e., the telephone number of the soft dial tone line known by thematrix system and used for the connection to establish soft dial toneservice) and address of the prospective subscriber premises for transferto paging center 21 via conventional telephone line 4. Matrix system 2typically goes off-hook via modem 24 to access paging terminal 26 atpaging center 21 in order to send the calling soft dial tone linetelephone number and address of the prospective subscriber's premises,contained in the facility information retrieved from matrix systemdatabase 35, to paging terminal 26. Transmitter 5 transmits the callingsoft dial tone line telephone number and address of the prospectivesubscriber's premises to all wireless pager displays 6 at emergencycenter 10, whereby the calling soft dial tone line telephone number andaddress of the prospective subscriber's premises are subsequentlydisplayed.

In parallel with the forwarding and transmission of data as describedabove, the call placed by the prospective subscriber progresses via thesoft dial tone connection and traverses conventional telephone switchingequipment. Specifically, switching equipment 7 routes the call toemergency center 10 with the calling soft dial tone line telephonenumber being automatically inserted into the dial pulse stream of thecall, via automatic number identification (ANI), for subsequent displayat all workstations 11. As the call is answered by an available operatorat emergency center 10, the calling soft dial tone line telephone numberfrom the telephone switching equipment is displayed at the operator'sworkstation 11 while the calling soft dial tone line telephone numberand address of the prospective subscriber's premises, transmitted frompaging center 21, is displayed at corresponding wireless pager display6. The address of the prospective subscriber's premises displayed atwireless pager display 6 is associated with the incoming call displayedat the operator's workstation 11 and verified by comparing the callingsoft dial tone line telephone number displayed at the operator'sworkstation 11 with the calling soft dial tone line telephone numberdisplayed at corresponding wireless pager display 6. In response to amatch, emergency center 10 has an exact verified address of the call asdisplayed at wireless pager display 6 where the call can be held untilan on-hook condition is sensed over the conventional telephone lines.

As an additional service and security measure, wireless pager displays12, 13 may be placed in administration center 22 and switching office 20respectively, or other suitable location to enable maintenance andoperations personnel to receive the transmission from paging center 21and monitor calls. Further, administration center 22 may record eventsand provide documentation disclosing date, time and all other relevantdetails of the call.

Operation of the system to process a call from a non-enabled telephoneline of a dwelling unit or business to a telephone company businessoffice is illustrated in FIG. 2. This operation is substantially similarto processing a call to an emergency center as described above exceptthat all facility information of the prospective subscriber's premisesis transmitted to the telephone company business office via the pagingcenter as opposed to only transmitting the calling soft dial tone linetelephone number and address of the prospective subscriber's premises.Specifically, matrix system 2 detects an off-hook condition at theprospective subscriber's premises and provides a dial tone byestablishing a connection to one of the soft dial tone lines asdescribed above. Matrix system 2 typically identifies the matrix x-ycoordinates (i.e.,.the row and column within the matrix for establishingthe connection to the soft dial tone line are identified insubstantially the same manner as described in the copending Ser. No.08/408,831 application) for the connection establishing the soft dialtone service in order to associate those coordinates with a particulardesignation of the cable pair used for the connection. The associatedcable pair designation is used to retrieve facility informationpertaining to the facilities at the prospective subscriber's premisesfrom matrix system database 35 as described above.

During facility information retrieval, matrix system 2 monitors a callplaced by the prospective subscriber in order to ascertain the firstthree digits of the telephone number being dialed. In response to thefirst three digits being dialed, matrix system 2 is aware of thespecific location of the telephone company business office being calledand subsequently accesses look-up tables 34 local to matrix system 2 toretrieve routing and protocol information for a wireless or alphanumericpaging center 21 servicing the area of telephone company business office23. The routing and protocol information retrieved from look-up tables34 are converted to the proper dialing protocol to route a call frommodem 24, residing in matrix system 2, over a conventional telephoneline 4 to paging terminal 26 at paging center 21. Modem 24 typicallyformats the retrieved protocols for the calling soft dial tone linetelephone number (i.e., the telephone number of the soft dial tone lineknown by the matrix system and used for the connection to establish softdial tone service) and facility information of the prospectivesubscriber's premises for transfer to paging center 21 via conventionaltelephone line 4. Matrix system 2 typically goes off-hook via modem 24to access paging terminal 26 in order to outpulse (i.e., send) thecalling soft dial tone line telephone number and facility information ofthe prospective subscriber's premises retrieved from matrix systemdatabase 35 to paging terminal 26 for transmission by transmitter 5 toall wireless pager displays 15 at telephone company business office 23.

In parallel with the forwarding and transmission of data as describedabove, the call placed by the prospective subscriber progresses via thesoft dial tone connection and traverses switching equipment 7 where thecall is routed to telephone company business office 23. The calling softdial tone line telephone number is automatically inserted into the dialpulse stream of the call via automatic number identification (ANI) forsubsequent display on all workstations 16. In response to an availableservice representative answering the call at telephone company businessoffice 23, the calling soft dial tone line telephone number from thetelephone switching equipment is displayed at the servicerepresentative's workstation 16 while the calling soft dial tone linetelephone number and facility information transmitted from paging center21 is received and displayed at corresponding wireless pager display 15.The facility information for the prospective subscriber's premises isverified by comparing the calling soft dial tone line telephone numberdisplayed at the service representative's workstation 16 with thecalling soft dial tone line telephone number displayed at correspondingwireless pager display 15. A match between the displayed calling softdial tone line telephone numbers associates the facility informationdisplayed at wireless pager display 15 with the incoming call displayedat the service representative's workstation 16 and verifies thecorrectness of the facility information so that the servicerepresentative may establish permanent service.

Operation of the system to facilitate telephone company credit cardcalls is illustrated in FIG. 3 and is substantially similar to theprocessing of calls to the emergency center and telephone companybusiness office as described above. Initially, a prospective or currentsubscriber obtains a credit card from the telephone company in order toplace telephone calls from any location. Specifically, matrix system 2detects an off-hook condition at the prospective subscriber premises orother location lacking full telephone services (i.e., telephone servicenot yet enabled) and establishes a connection to provide soft dial toneservice as described above. Matrix system 2 monitors a call placed bythe prospective or current subscriber in possession of a telephonecompany credit card to ascertain the first digit of the telephone numberbeing dialed. In response to the first dialed digit being a zero,telephone switching equipment 7 routes the call to operator 40 to handlethe call in a conventional manner for telephone company credit cardcalls.

Operation of the system to process a call from a handset, connected to acable pair in the field whose facility information is unavailable, to arepair/maintenance service center is illustrated in FIG. 4. Thisoperation is substantially similar to processing a call to a telephonecompany business office as described above. Initially, a servicetechnician or personnel member on call in the field may need facilityinformation pertaining to a particular cable pair being serviced. Thetechnician typically connects a conventional handset 53 (i.e., handsetstypically used by repair/maintenance personnel in the field to connectto, and inspect, telephone line connections) to cable pair 51 andproceeds to place a call to a repair/maintenance service center 50 torequest facility information relating to the cable pair. Specifically,matrix system 2 detects an off-hook condition at cable pair 51 andprovides a dial tone to handset 53 by establishing a connection to oneof the soft dial tone lines as described above. Matrix system 2typically identifies the matrix x-y coordinates (i.e., the row andcolumn within the matrix for establishing the connection to the softdial tone line are identified in substantially the same manner asdescribed in copending Ser. No. 08/408,831 application) for theconnection establishing the soft dial tone service in order to associatethose coordinates with a particular designation of the cable pair usedfor the connection. The associated cable pair designation is used toretrieve facility information pertaining to cable pair 51 from matrixsystem database 35 as described above.

During facility information retrieval, matrix system 2 monitors a callplaced by the service technician in order to ascertain the first threedigits of the telephone number being dialed. In response to the firstthree digits being dialed, matrix system 2 is aware of the specificlocation of the repair/maintenance service center being called andsubsequently accesses look-up tables 34 local to matrix system 2 toretrieve routing and protocol information for a wireless or alphanumericpaging center 21 servicing the area of repair/maintenance service center50. The routing and protocol information retrieved from look-up tables34 are converted to the proper dialing protocol to route a call frommodem 24, residing in matrix system 2, over a conventional telephoneline 4 to paging terminal 26 at paging center 21. Modem 24 typicallyformats the retrieved protocols for the calling soft dial tone linetelephone number (i.e., the telephone number of the soft dial tone lineknown by the matrix system and used for the connection to establish softdial tone service) and facility information of cable pair 51 fortransfer to paging center 21 via conventional telephone line 4. Matrixsystem 2 typically goes off-hook via modem 24 to access paging terminal26 in order to outpulse (i.e., send) the calling soft dial tone linetelephone number and facility information of cable pair 51 retrievedfrom matrix system database 35 to paging terminal 26 for transmission bytransmitter 5 to all wireless pager displays 57 at repair/maintenanceservice center 50.

In parallel with the forwarding and transmission of data as describedabove, the call placed by the service technician progresses via the softdial tone connection and traverses switching equipment 7 where the callis routed to repair/maintenance service center 50. The calling soft dialtone line telephone number is automatically inserted into the dial pulsestream of the call via automatic number identification (ANI) forsubsequent display on all workstations 55. In response to an availableservice representative answering the call at repair/maintenance servicecenter 50, the calling soft dial tone line telephone number from thetelephone switching equipment is displayed at the servicerepresentative's workstation 55 while the calling soft dial tone linetelephone number and facility information transmitted from paging center21 is received and displayed at corresponding wireless pager display 57.The facility information for cable pair 51 is verified by comparing thecalling soft dial tone line telephone number displayed at the servicerepresentative's workstation 55 with the calling soft dial tone linetelephone number displayed at corresponding wireless pager display 57. Amatch between the displayed calling soft dial tone line telephonenumbers associates the facility information displayed at wireless pagerdisplay 57 with the incoming call displayed at the servicerepresentative's workstation 55 and verifies the correctness of thefacility information so that the service representative may orallycommunicate the facility information via the soft dial tone call to theservice technician in the field. Further, matrix system 2, upon requestof the service technician, may also enable test stimuli to be sent tocable pair 51 in a substantially similar manner as described inapplication Ser. No. 08/408,831 to test and ensure proper operation ofthe cable pair. The test stimuli may include various tones or otherelectrical signals testing various aspects of the cable pair.

An alternative mode of data transference for use as a backup system oras additional security is illustrated in FIG. 5. Specifically, four-wiremodems 29, 38 respectively reside adjacent administrative center 22, andeach matrix system 2 at a remote location. Administrative center 22 andeach matrix system 2 are substantially similar to the administrativecenter and matrix system as described above. Matrix system 2 typicallycommunicates with telephone company business office 23, emergency center10, and repair/maintenance service center 50 via data-over-voice (DOVmodems 28 connected to a conventional telephone switching network 30wherein voice signals and data can be sent simultaneously over the sametelephone line. Emergency center 10, telephone company business office23, and repair/maintenance service center 50 typically includerespective DOV modems 36, 37, 59 and respective workstations 11, 16, 55and are substantially similar to the emergency center, telephone companybusiness office and repair/maintenance service center described above.

Operation of the alternative mode is now described. Specifically, matrixsystem 2 detects an off-hook condition at the prospective subscriberpremises or a handset of a service personnel member connected to a cablepair in the field whose facility information is unavailable, andestablishes a connection in substantially the same manner described inapplication Ser. No. 08/408,831 in order to provide limited telephoneservice to the prospective subscriber or service personnel member viaDOV modem 28. Matrix system 2 identifies the x-y coordinates (i.e., therow and column within the matrix for the connection providing limitedtelephone service are identified in substantially the same mannerdescribed in the Ser. No. 08/408,831 application) within the matrix forthe connection establishing limited telephone service in order toassociate the coordinates with a particular designation of the cablepair used for the connection. Facility information for the prospectivesubscriber's premises and cable pairs in the field is stored atworkstation 18 of administration center 22 utilizing cable pairdesignations as identification keys. Workstation 18 continually pollsmatrix system 2 for requests for facility information. In response toidentifying the cable pair designation for the prospective subscriber'spremises or cable pair utilized by the handset, matrix system 2 respondsto the poll of workstation 18 and requests facility information for theidentified cable pair designation. The facility information issubsequently retrieved based on the identified cable pair designation,and downloaded via four-wire modems 29, 38 to matrix system 2 forstorage in a memory device or holding register (not shown). In responseto answering a call at a telephone company business office 23, emergencycenter 10 or repair/maintenance service center 50, an off-hook conditionsignals matrix system 2 to send the stored facility information to therespective destination. Matrix system 2 typically inserts theappropriate facility information (i.e., only calling soft dial tone linetelephone number and address for calls to emergency center 10) on thesame line on which voice signals are being sent such that the voicesignals and facility information are sent simultaneously over the sametelephone line via DOV modem 28 and switching network 30. The facilityinformation and voice signals are partitioned by DOV modems 36, 37, 59at respective destinations such that the facility information isdisplayed at respective workstations 11, 16, 55 of emergency center 10,telephone company business office 23, and repair/maintenance servicecenter 50 while voice signals are received by corresponding conventionalhandsets 31, 39, 61. In response to telephone company business office 23receiving facility information of a prospective subscriber's premises,credit and contact information is subsequently verbally retrieved fromthe prospective subscriber and downloaded with the facility informationto workstation 18 via an internal data network 33. An operator atadministration center 22 is then instructed to establish permanentservice via matrix system 2 as described in application Ser. No.08/408,831. Further, in response to repair/maintenance service center 50receiving facility information of the cable pair in the field, thefacility information is orally communicated via the soft dial tone callto the service personnel member in the field. Moreover, matrix system 2,upon request, may ensure proper operation of the cable pair by enablingtest stimuli to be sent to the cable pair as described above.

It will be appreciated that the embodiments described above andillustrated in the drawings represent only a few of the many ways ofimplementing a method and apparatus for a cross-connect system withfacility information transference to a remote location. For example, thetelephone lines may be any of the conventional telephone lines commonlyused by telephone companies, or any other transmission medium capable ofconveying voice and data signals. The paging devices may be anycommercially available wireless it, communication devices or any otherdevice capable of wireless communication and display. The workstationsmay be any commercially available computers, processors, terminals,monitors or other devices capable of displaying, processing andreceiving data. The switching equipment may be any conventionalswitching equipment used by telephone companies or any other devicecapable of routing telephone calls to proper locations to achieve theresults herein described. The modems may be any commercially availablemodems or other device capable of data transmission or data-over-voicetransmission.

The present invention may also be utilized to route calls and sendcorresponding information to other specific individuals or locations tocommence substantially any type of transaction. The data transferred maybe any data necessary to a particular application employing the presentinvention. The database and look-up tables may be any commerciallyavailable database or memory or any other device capable of dataretrieval and storage.

From the foregoing description it will be appreciated that the inventionmakes available a novel method and apparatus for a cross-connect systemwith automatic facility information transference to a remote locationwherein facility information pertaining to a prospective subscriber'spremises or cable pair in the field is automatically transferred to atelephone company business office, an emergency center, or arepair/maintenance service center via a wireless communication or pagingsystem.

Having described the preferred embodiments of a new and improved methodand apparatus for a cross-connect system with automatic facilityinformation transference to a remote location, it is believed that othermodifications, variations and changes will be suggested to those skilledin the art and in view of the teachings set forth herein. It istherefore to be understood that all such variations; modifications andchanges are believed to fall within the scope of the present inventionas defined by the appended claims.

What is claimed is:
 1. An apparatus for automatically retrieving andtransferring facility information of a premises of a caller lackingtelephone service to a destination of a call comprising: a matrix systemincluding: an interconnection matrix for establishing connections withcable pairs associated with said premises in order to provide limitedtelephone service to said caller; a memory for storing said facilityinformation; and a recognition device to recognize an off-hook conditionat said premises; an administration system to store facility informationand to poll said matrix system for requests for said facilityinformation; a first four wire modem coupled to said matrix system fordownloading facility information from said administration system intosaid memory; a second four wire modem coupled to said administrationsystem for downloading said facility information from saidadministration system to said matrix system; a switched telephonenetwork for routing said calls to said destination; a matrixdata-over-voice modem for inserting said facility information on thesame line as voice signals of said caller to simultaneously send saidvoice signals and said facility information via said switched network tosaid destination; a destination data-over-voice modern at saiddestination for receiving and separating said facility information andsaid voice signals; a destination display at said destination to displaysaid facility information received by said destination data-over-voicemodem; and a destination receiver to receive and convey said voicesignals received by said destination data-over-voice modem.
 2. Theapparatus of claim 1 wherein said matrix system further includes: acoordinate determining unit to determine the coordinates within theinterconnection matrix corresponding to the connection of the caller; anassociation device to associate said coordinates to a cable pairdesignation corresponding to the cable pair used in said connection; anda request unit to request said facility information from saidadministration system based on said cable pair designation and inresponse to said polling.
 3. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein saiddestination is a 9-1-1 emergency center and said facility informationcomprises an address of said premises.
 4. The apparatus of claim 1wherein said destination is a telephone company business office.
 5. Theapparatus of claim 1 wherein said premises is a cable pair located inthe field and said destination is a repair/maintenance service center,wherein said matrix system further includes a test unit to selectivelytest said cable pair by enabling test signals to be sent to said cablepair.
 6. The apparatus of claim 4 wherein said apparatus furthercomprises a matrix controller to control said matrix system to establishpermanent telephone service to said caller in response to a request andinformation retrieved from said caller, and downloading said informationretrieved from said caller to said administration system.
 7. A methodfor automatically retrieving and transferring facility information of apremises of a caller lacking telephone services to a destination of acall comprising the steps of: (a) recognizing an off-hook condition andproviding limited telephone services at said premises to permit calls topredetermined locations; (b) retrieving facility information associatedwith said premises from an administration center; (c) inserting saidfacility information into voice signals of said caller in order tosimultaneously send said voice signals and said facility information tosaid destination via a first data-over-voice modem; (d) receiving andseparating said voice signals and said facility information at saiddestination via a second data-over-voice modem; and (e) displaying saidfacility information on a display device and conveying said voicesignals over a handset at said destination.
 8. The method of claimherein: step (a) further includes: (a.1) establishing a connection to acable pair associated with the premises of the caller in order toprovide said limited telephone services; (a.2) determining a cable pairdesignation of the cable pair associated with the premises of the callerand used to establish said connection; and step (b) further includesrequesting facility information from said administration center based onsaid cable pair designation and downloading said facility informationfrom said administration center into a memory.
 9. The method of claim 7wherein said destination is a 9-1-1 emergency center and said facilityinformation comprises an address of said premises.
 10. The method ofclaim 7 wherein said destination is a telephone company business office.11. The method of claim 7 wherein said premises is a cable pair locatedin the field and said destination is a repair/maintenance servicecenter, wherein said method further includes the steps of: (f)communicating said facility information to a service technician locatedat said cable pair; and (g) selectively testing said cable pair byenabling test signals to be sent to said cable pair.
 12. The method ofclaim 10 further including the step of: (f) establishing permanenttelephone service at said premises in response to a request by saidcaller and receipt of said facility information at said telephonecompany business office.
 13. The method of claim 12 further includingthe step of: (g) downloading s aid facility information and informationretrieved from said caller to said a administration center.
 14. Anapparatus for processing telephone company credit card calls of a callerhaving a telephone company credit card from premises not yet havingtelephone services enabled comprising: a matrix system including: aninterconnection matrix for establishing connections with cable pairsassociated with said premises in order to provide limited telephoneservice to said caller; a monitor device to ascertain digits of atelephone number dialed by said caller in response to providing saidlimited telephone service; a recognition device to recognize an off-hookcondition at said premises; and a soft dial tone device to provide saidlimited telephone service at said premises to permit calls topredetermined locations in response to an off-hook condition beingrecognized at said premises; a switching device to route said call to anoperator to process said telephone company credit call in response tosaid caller dialing zero.
 15. A method for processing telephone companycredit card calls of a caller having a telephone company credit cardfrom a premises not yet having telephone services enabled comprising thesteps of: (a) recognizing an off-hook condition and providing limitedtelephone services at said premises to permit calls to a limited numberof predetermined locations; (b) ascertaining digits of a telephonenumber dialed in order to place a call at said premises in response toproviding said limited telephone services; (c) routing said call to anoperator to process said telephone company credit card call in responseto said caller dialing a zero.
 16. An apparatus for verifying telephonefacility information of a premises of a caller lacking telephone serviceby automatically transferring a calling line telephone number via twoseparate paths to a destination of a call comprising: a matrix systemincluding: an interconnection matrix for establishing connectionsbetween cable pairs associated with said premises in order to providelimited telephone service to said caller; a database for storing saidtelephone facility information; a look-up table for storing routing andprotocol information; a modem for transferring said calling linetelephone number and facility information over a telephone lineutilizing said routing and protocol information; a recognition device torecognize an off-hook condition at said premises; and a soft dial tonedevice to provide said limited telephone service at said premises topermit calls to predetermined locations in response to an off-hookcondition being recognized at said premises; a switching device to routesaid call to said destination and insert said calling line telephonenumber into said call during said routing; a paging system to receivesaid facility information and said calling line telephone number fromsaid matrix system via said modem and to transmit said facilityinformation and said calling line telephone number to said destination;a pager display at said destination to receive and display said facilityinformation and said calling line telephone number transmitted by saidpaging system; and a call display to receive and display said callingline telephone number from said switching device at said destination inresponse to answering said call at said destination; wherein saidcalling line telephone number displayed on said pager display and saidcalling line telephone number displayed on said call display aredisplayed simultaneously to verify said facility information at saiddestination where a match of said calling line telephone numbersindicates proper facility information of said premises of the caller.17. The apparatus of claim 16 wherein said matrix system furtherincludes: a coordinate determining unit to determine the coordinateswithin the interconnection matrix corresponding to the connection of thecaller; an association device to associate said coordinates to a cablepair designation corresponding to the cable pair used in saidconnection; and an access unit to access said facility information insaid database based on said cable pair designation.
 18. The apparatus ofclaim 17 wherein said matrix system further includes: a monitor deviceto ascertain the digits of a telephone number dialed by said caller inresponse to providing said limited telephone service; a look-up moduleto access said look-up table in response to ascertaining said digits inorder to retrieve said routing and protocol information for said modemand establish a path to transfer said calling line telephone number andsaid facility information to said paging system.
 19. The apparatus ofclaim 16 wherein said destination is a 9-1-1 emergency center and saidfacility information comprises an address of said premises.
 20. Theapparatus of claim 16 wherein said destination is a telephone companybusiness office.
 21. The apparatus of claim 16 wherein said premises isa cable pair located in the field and said destination is arepair/maintenance service center, wherein said matrix system furtherincludes a test unit to selectively test said cable pair by enablingtest signals to be sent to said cable pair.
 22. The apparatus of claim16 wherein said modem formats said protocol information for said callingline telephone number and said facility information in order to dialsaid paging system and transmit said calling line telephone number andsaid facility information to said paging system.
 23. The apparatus ofclaim 20 wherein said apparatus further comprises a matrix controller tocontrol said matrix system to establish permanent telephone service tosaid caller in response to a request by said caller and verification ofsaid facility information.
 24. The apparatus of claim 16 wherein aplurality of call displays and pager displays reside at said destinationand said calling line telephone number associates said facilityinformation displayed on a pager display with the calling line telephonenumber of an incoming call displayed on a call display.
 25. A method forverifying facility information of a premises of a caller lackingtelephone service by automatically transferring a calling line telephonenumber via two separate paths and said facility information to adestination of a call, said method comprising the steps of: (a)recognizing an off-hook condition and providing limited telephoneservices at said premises to permit calls to predetermined locations;(b) ascertaining digits of a telephone number dialed in order to place acall at said premises in response to providing said limited telephoneservices; (c) retrieving said calling line telephone number and saidfacility information respectively associated with said call and saidpremises; (d) transferring said calling line telephone number and saidfacility information to a paging system to transmit said calling linetelephone number and said facility information to said destination; (e)routing said call to said destination through a telephone system whereinsaid telephone system automatically inserts said calling line telephonenumber into said call during traversal of switching equipment; (f)receiving and displaying said calling line telephone number and facilityinformation from said paging system on a paging device at saiddestination; (g) receiving and displaying said calling line telephonenumber from said telephone system on a display device at saiddestination; (h) verifying said calling line telephone number displayedon said display device against said calling line telephone numberdisplayed on said paging device wherein a match of said calling linetelephone numbers indicates proper facility information of said premisesof the caller.
 26. The method of claim 23 wherein: step (a) furtherincludes: (a.1) establishing a connection to a cable pair associatedwith the premises of the caller in order to provide said limitedtelephone services; (a.2) determining a cable pair designation of thecable pair associated with the premises of the caller and used toestablish said connection; and step (c) further includes retrieving saidfacility information from a database based on said cable pairdesignation of the caller.
 27. The method of claim 26 wherein step (d)further includes retrieving routing and protocol information from alook-up table to establish a path via a modem for transferring saidcalling line telephone number and said facility information to saidpaging system.
 28. The method of claim 25 wherein said destination is a9-1-1 emergency center and said facility information comprises anaddress of said premises.
 29. The method of claim 25 wherein saiddestination is a telephone company business office.
 30. The method ofclaim 25 wherein said premises is a cable pair located in the field andsaid destination is a repair/maintenance service center, wherein saidmethod further comprises the steps of: (i) communicating said facilityinformation to a service technician located at said cable pair; and (j)selectively testing said cable pair by enabling test signals to be sendto said cable pair.
 31. The method of claim 25 wherein step (d) furtherincludes formatting said protocol information for said calling linetelephone number and said facility information in order to access saidpaging system and transfer said calling line telephone number and saidfacility information over telephone lines via a modem.
 32. The method ofclaim 29 further including the step of: (i) establishing permanenttelephone service at said premises in response to a request by saidcaller and verification of said facility information.
 33. The method ofclaim 25 wherein step (g) further includes associating said facilitiesinformation displayed on said paging device with the calling linetelephone number of an incoming call displayed on said display device bymatching said calling line telephone number displayed on said displaydevice to the calling line telephone number displayed on the pagingdevice.